Sweet Dreams
by renee321
Summary: X-Files story with Mulder and Scully circa 1998 surrounding a mysterious purple light. Rated T for future content.
1. Introduction

A Note: I began working on this story when I was in high school (during class no less) so you may notice the text change in style or maturity levels as the chapters are posted. Please enjoy.**

* * *

**

X-Files 

Sweet Dreams...

San Diego, CA

9:25 p.m.

A man is impatiently waiting at the dock for a package. Its origin is unknown. It is not a normal package, not one that is of this time. Glancing down at his watch impatiently, he finds light at the sound of a loud crash. Looking out over the dock he sees a large figure. A boat, perhaps even a ship. An eerie yet familiar sound forces him to clasp his hands over his head in fright. Shortly after he moves, a ton of rusted metal comes hurtling toward him. A strange purple light comes at him, stops, hovering over him enclosing the air he breathes and the ground he walks on. It makes him forget his purpose, forcing him to the ground; he sleeps for a minute. His body falls limp as it gives into the light. The metal is gone with only the shadow of a ship coming left at the bare dock. A horn blows as the vessel arrives with the unknown package. The dream is over…

* * *

Washington DC

5:30 a.m.

"Scully, it's our case, our plane leaves in half an hour; I'll be there to pick you up in 10 minutes." He didn't mean to sound upset with her, but she was protesting a simple plane ride, what was next, was his method of working too much for her too?

"All right, all right, I'm getting ready. See you in a few minutes. Good-bye Mulder." Well, it wasn't as if he had forced her to come, she could just quit. Although he would rarely admit it to himself, she was probably the best thing that had ever happened to his career. Even though her mission was to question everything he believed in, she was a hard worker, and would stop at almost nothing to get the truth. He hated to think about it, but without her, his career would be over, possibly even his life. They had been split once before, it could've killed him. Everything he feared in work, she managed. Everything he longed for in life she questioned, yet everything he needed to live she helped him obtain.

"Well, don't we look fine? What time did you go to sleep?" he asked as he arrived at the open door to her apartment.

"Mulder, quit joking around, I want to get out to California and get this thing over with!" He noticed circles under her eyes but didn't think much of it. They had been working hard lately; he probably had circles himself.

"Well, let's go, we've got a plane to catch... and some aliens to track!" Aliens; ever since his sister was taken away from him, he'd searched for them. Every time, however, coming to a dead-end; hoping each case would give him more answers. Lately there had just been more questions.


	2. San Diego

San Diego, CA 

8:00 p.m.

"Well you certainly look well rested."

"Mulder, don't start with me, I mean it!" Didn't he ever stop? What did he mean well rested? She looked fine, maybe a little tired, but fine. The things he said lately had been awfully rude. Was he mad at her for some reason? Come to think of it, he was probably tired too, who wouldn't be? She, however, was sick and tired of his attitude; it seemed that everything she did was wrong... Who appointed him Commissioner? Sick, she thought; stomach churning, she started a brisk walk along side her partner. "So who, or what are we looking for?"

"Well, apparently some street cleaners and a shopkeeper saw the light. I want to find out if they saw anything else." Mulder said, looking around for an address on the old buildings.

"What light Mulder?"

"Didn't you read our briefing, or do I have to do everything?" he smiled as she paused behind him with an exasperated look in her face.

"Who are we going to see now?" Her pace accelerated as she tried to keep up with her partner's long legs.

"I thought we might start with the shopkeeper, the street cleaners won't be here for another hour or so. That _okay with you_, Scully" he asked, turning his head as she was a little behind him.

"Sure, that's fine, Mulder. Whoever it is, let's just get their story and go." she tried not to sound impatient, but all she wanted to do was go back to the hotel and sleep.

"Scully, we have to get the street cleaners after this guy. Are you up to this? You don't have to come if you don't want to. I could give you the car keys and you could..."

"Mulder stop jabbering, and let's do this. I'm fine, I'm just a little tired," As they rushed off to the store, Scully began to rethink her decision to come along.

The storefront was old and badly needed repainting. The Final Fight, the name had a strange ring to it. The agents wondered what would be behind the curtains in the doorway. As they entered, a strong aroma of polish hit them like a dog waiting for his master. As she looked around she saw various artifacts from war times, she recognized some of them, her father had brought occasional artifacts home. A dark haired man came out to greet them; he was not at all what she expected. He was smaller, for a man, with a heavy build. He looked pale; it seemed as though he hadn't seen the sun a day in his life. He was in jeans and a collared shirt, (most people who worked out on the beach were) "We must look like foreigners," she thought looking down at her navy business suit and black trenchcoat.

"So tell me Mr..." she looked at his name plate, "Gerry, what did you see at approximately 9:30 last night?"

"Well, I was doing some polishing on new artifacts that a family had just brought to me, when I see this light for a minute. It was kind of a lavender maybe purple color. Not like the red lights we have every day, I thought maybe I was just seeing things, but when I got out there, some street cleaners had seen it to." his eyes grew round as he described what had happened.

"Now, a Mr. John Rincon died last night, it was around the same time the 'purple light' appeared. Did you have any contact with and/or knowledge of this man prior to his death?" Scully looked around the shop to see if she could determine where the man could've seen the light come in.

"Umm, no, you see, I just heard someone died last night on the radio earlier today. So, no I didn't know him before." he glanced around nervously as if expecting someone to pounce. Mulder glanced up with his newly found question.

"Mr. Gerry, you said you stepped outside, how did you miss seeing a dead body in the middle of the dock? And which window were you looking out of at the time you saw the light?" Scully put her hand to her head in a motion to signal Mulder over towards her; they needed to talk. They let Mr. Gerry conference with a customer as the agents walked over to a secluded corner of the building.

"What do you need Scully?"

"Can you believe this guy Mulder? It's probably just some story he made up to get us here. I don't think it would've been possible for him to see any light, the windows in this building face out toward the parking lot. If he had seen any light he would've seen Mr. Rincon along with it. Mulder lets just come back tomorrow, I don't think the street cleaners are going to say much more." she looked up to see a strained smile on his face.

"No, Scully, I want to question these guys. You can go wait for me in the car; it'll probably be less than a half an hour. I think we may have a real case here!" she thrust out her hand and he gently dropped the keys into her palm. Raising his eyebrows he gave her some advice, "Don't leave the doors open, we wouldn't want you to get into any mischief!"

She pushed her way past Mulder and out the door. Half an hour was just perfect for a small rest. As she walked out onto the dock, she felt a cool ocean breeze sweep past her. She tasted the salt in the air, and felt a slight dampness on her warm skin. Looking around, she noticed a few people staring at her... the street cleaners. She pulled her coat tightly around her small frame as she picked up speed. There was something about those men, not anything noticeable, just a feeling that she ought to leave. She got into the car; drivers side; figuring she could pull out quickly if she had to. She had just closed her eyes when...

"Scully... Scully, get up, I can't drive us back to the hotel if your sitting there! Come on!" with a great shove her head snapped back; still he had just barely gotten a reaction out of her. He had run out to the parking lot earlier to get a pad and paper, she had been asleep then too. He shook her again, harder.

"Ow, Mulder... what're you trying to do break my neck? I just fell asleep!" she mumbled crankily, as she moved across the panel to the passenger's side.

"_**Just**_ fell asleep? I came out here about two hours ago and you were asleep then! I've been trying to wake you up for the past five minutes!" he pulled out of the parking space and drove away leaving her in a state of confusion. "Scully are you sure you're all right? It seems like you've been sleeping a lot lately."

"I'm fine, I'm just tired! You're always waking me up to rush off to places with 'alien crimes', and it turns out to be some lunatic messing with people's minds! I don't know, maybe I'm just tired of having my life threatened every other day!" she was cranky, not only from just waking up; but because she knew he was right. She'd had a nice long nap that afternoon, and went to bed early the night before. Being like this scared her. It wasn't often that she was ill, and when she was... she knew it! Something was different though, something she had forgotten when Mulder woke her up.


	3. Wakeup Call

_A/N-I apologize for how long it's been since I last updated. I hope to update on a (slightly) more regular basis in the future. Thanks for your time._

2:00 a.m.

A light was flooding over her in a big dark place, not the fluorescent ones you find in buildings, but an eerie purple light. She could feel something there, but couldn't quite make it out. The harder she tried to find it, the harder it became to breathe. She heard a loud noise in the background... familiar... what was it? Phone? She sat up panting and reached for the phone carefully screwed to the nightstand next to her bed. "Hello," she gasped.

"Hi, it's me, Mulder. You ready to go? We did have plans for a quick un-nutritious breakfast, didn't we?" he said hurriedly.

"Mulder," she said glancing over at the clock, "it's 2 in the morning! Who in the hell would get up that early for breakfast?" not to mention, who would be serving breakfast that early!

"People who just received a call from their Assistant Director, saying that it happened again. That would be us Scully..."

"It happened? What's IT? Are you sure he meant for us to get up right now?" she was slowly waking up when her mind suddenly snapped into action. The dream was gone; the haze vanished from her thoughts just as she was remembering another dream. What was it? Why had she come here, what had she forgotten? "All right, just give me 10 minutes!" All of these early morning rises, no wonder she felt tired!

San Diego

2:45 am

"Scully, Scully are you OK in there? Open the door!" He knocked once more before breaking open the door. Mulder found her sprawled out on her bed, in her dress pants and unbuttoned shirt. As Mulder approached her he was cautious not to disturb the room. "Scully, wake up. It's me, Mulder!"

"What... who... how... ouch! Mulder stop it you're hurting me!" she screamed when she felt the shaking, it wasn't violent, yet it hurt. How could he have gotten in? She'd said 10 minutes, what time was it? 2:51, how could it have gotten so late. "What, what happened? I don't know what happened!"

"I think you need some coffee, and then we have got to drive out to Arizona. The Bureau didn't feel like paying for plane tickets." He grasped tightly to her hand and pulled her up off the bed. Something was different now, something in the air, abstract. Too unreal to be here, but too real to be left alone.

The night air lingered as the two agents set out for the highway. Only two more hours until dawn. Only two more hours to remember; but remember what? What was there, what had been coming, what would come next? The route to Arizona was long and hot. Who knew what they would find there, and which of their questions would be answered, if any.

Traveling down Interstate 8 going East, they had an 8-hour drive ahead of them, not including any stops or traffic. When the first rays of sunlight hit the car it was past 5 in the morning. She drove until the sun was out and dust swirled around the rental car. When she glanced over to her partner their eyes locked and she pulled over. It was understood from one glance that she was tired; all of that from a light reflecting off each others eyes, from a light inside.


End file.
